About Chorley Council

The Chief Executive and Leader of the Council introduce the corporate induction programme for all new starters. In addition to introducing themselves and their roles within the council, they take this opportunity to explain the council's vision, its commitment to customer service and the importance of each and every member of staff in this. Staff Matters - The meeting, which takes place monthly and is chaired by the Chief Executive, is attended by staff representatives from each service area. Its objective is to engage with staff, getting them involved in making decisions and get feedback on a wide variety of subjects. It is common for the Chief Executive to take personal responsibility for actioning certain points brought up by staff, ranging from car parking issues to refurbishment of toilet areas. Back to the Floor - All Directors and Heads of Service go ‘back to the floor’ for at least ½ day per year, during which they shadow an officer delivering a front-line council service. Following this job shadow, all Directors and Heads of Service report back on their experience and identify any changes they propose to make in their own service area.

The council takes a proactive approach to services such as counselling and physio before staff are off sick therefore balance costs with less occupational health referrals and reducing sickness absence costs. Health and wellbeing is a permanent agenda point on Staff Matters therefore always remains a key priority to the organisation and Chief Executive who chairs the group.

After a recent restructure all Heads of Service and Directors attended an away day/ team building day. The primary aims of this away day was for managers to build as a team, open up communications channels and establish a basis of trust. The event started with a team building activity that involved four seperate teams to achieve a common goal of building a physical bridge. This was followed by a presentation by the Chief Executive on Chorley's challenges and an exercise to identify expected behaviours in line with these challenges and Chorley’s values of ‘Forward Thinking’, ‘Respect’, ‘Professional’, ‘Pride’ and ‘One Team, One Council’. The event finished with a 360 exercise where every manager and their service area were scored on each of the values.